A Letter from President Lorraine Sterritt

Letter from the President

or many, the pandemic has been a time for reflection, reinvention, and connection. In this issue, we look back on the last year-and-a-half, framing our experience and gathering insight into the experiences of others. In looking back, we do not dare presume that the

Fstorm is over, but we have met so many challenges with creativity, humility, and resilience. We have changed in ways large and small.

Faculty, staff, students, and alumni reveal the ways in which they have reflected on the pandemic and what these reflections have yielded. Often, that takes the form of gratitude for friends, family, loved ones, colleagues, pets, nature, and daily inperson contact. Sometimes they gave themselves permission to be still, to stop striving. Reflection made space for selfcare and kindness. Others express a renewed allegiance to core values. Many report that from reflection came determination to make the world a better place: to listen better, to act to correct injustice and inequity, and to engage more fully with their communities. They found new ways in which to use their considerable skills and talents to pull us back from the brink.

Members of our community represented here also felt isolated, overwhelmed, anxious, and uncertain, but in the midst of that uncertainty about the future, they made brave changes in their careers, relationships, and priorities. They reinvented themselves in brilliant, inspiring, and often very practical ways. In a time of scarce resources, they employed what Professor Peter Harrigan, searching in vain for elastic to make masks, calls “the shoelace factor.” (Use your imagination, or turn to page 28!)

Reading their stories, you will feel the importance of connection bubbling below the surface. Purple Knights reached out across our wide network for advice, mentorship, recommendations, and recipes. They responded to our request for stories with openness and trust.

There will be so much more processing, reflecting, reinventing, and connecting ahead. For now, let’s pause, look around, and take the opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate one another.

D. E. Lorraine Sterritt President